a May Use US Poll Worker Data to Blackmail, Election Interference, and GOP Lawmaker Warns //

After the arrest of the chief executive of an election-software company with alleged ties the party, a Republican congressman warns that the Chinese Communist Party could use the data of U.S. workers to weaponize it.

Rep. The Daily Signal was informed by Ralph Norman, R.S.C. “It is possible that China is simply warehousing these data for the moment, with the option to extract it at a later time.”

He added, chillingly:

It is possible that China has been actively using this data to determine which poll workers could be targets of blackmail, election interference or other nefarious activities. This deserves an in-depth investigation, regardless of China’s motives.

Norman believes that Democrats will continue to control the country despite his requests for investigations.

Norman stated that he doesn’t anticipate any meaningful investigations so long as Democrats control Congress. “With the Republicans retaking the majority of seats in January, I expect there to be many investigations on many fronts, including this one.”

He said, “On something so important as election integrity I hope Congress will come together in a bipartisan fashion.”

George Gascon, Los Angeles County District Attorney , announced that Eugene Yu (founder and executive of election software company Konnech Inc.) was arrested in Michigan as part of an investigation into possible theft of personal information of [poll] workers.

Los Angeles County paid $2.9 million to the Michigan-based company over five years. Konnech was charged with secure maintaining the data and allowing only U.S. citizens or permanent residents access.

Los Angeles District Attorney investigators discovered that the information of poll workers was stored on servers in China, despite the contract.

Helen Raleigh, the author and editor of “Confucius Never Said,” informed The Daily Signal via email that poll worker data could potentially be used to “intelligence gather for future political influence campaigns” or “gather information for key individuals for future Blackmailing.”

“This could be just the tip of an iceberg. Raleigh, a senior fellow at The Federalist, stated that the Chinese government has probably more information about Americans than we realize.

“I was also concerned about the backlash against Chinese Americans that occurred when news like this broke. Raleigh stated that he hoped that reporters would always distinguish the Chinese people, Chinese Americans, from the CCP and that many Chinese Americans are patriotic Americans as well.

Rep. Mark Green (Republican from Tennessee) stated that he and his fellows on the China Task Force are working together to counter China’s “malign influences” in order to protect U.S. elections as well as national security.

“China has made great strides in their technological infrastructure, but has tried to compromise our national security.” It is obvious why the Chinese Communist Party would like to have the personal information of American poll workers,” Green stated in an email to The Daily Signal.

He said, “They want to influence American election results and push our nation towards their version of totalitarianism.”

Rep. Jim Banks (Republican from Indiana) echoed the calls to investigate. He did not express optimism, however, about any significant progress regarding election security under the Democratic leadership.

“President [Donald] Trump’s [Director for National Intelligence] John Ratcliffe concluded China intended interference in the 2020 election. Eugene Yu’s ties with the Communist Party should immediately be investigated,” Banks, chairman of the Republican Study Committee stated to The Daily Signal in an email statement.

Banks said, “Unfortunately election security has become an issue of partisanship and I think we’ll need to wait until Republicans win back the House to implement the kind of election integrity measure outlined by Leader [Kevin] McCarthy’s Commitment to America.”

In a statement to The New York Times, a Konnech spokesperson denied the allegations and called Yu’s arrest “wrongful.” Yu was born in China and immigrated to the United States in 1986. Newsweek reported.

“Any L.A. County poll worker information Konnech may have had was provided to it, and therefore could not be’stolen” as suggested,” said the spokesman.

Victoria Coates is a senior researcher in international affairs at The Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom. She called the People’s Republic of China a “ravenous user of data on all matters they consider sensitive for America.” (The Daily Signal, the media outlet of The Heritage Foundation.

Coates stated that they regularly try to extract dossiers from groups they think they might exploit in future, in this case to possibly meddle in U.S. election elections.

Konnech did no respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment.

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